The 1888 Message
/"Jones and Waggoner clearly understood that Christ's final atonement ministry will enable His people to overcome all sin, even that which is now unknown to them.... The Lord can never translate sin into His eternal kingdom, for if He did, such buried seeds would spring up anew and contaminate the universe.
"At the GC (1893) session Jones explained the simple, practical ministry of the Lord in this time of the cleansing of the sanctuary:
"'Well, now, let us carry that a little further. He [Christ] gave Himself for our sins; but He will not take our sins – although He bought them – without our permission.... The choice is forever with me as to whether I would rather have my sins than to have Him, isn't it? [Cong: "Yes!"]... Then from this time forth can there be any hesitation about letting anything go that God shows is sin? Will you let it go when it is pointed out? When sin is pointed out to you, say, "I would rather have Christ than that." And let it go. [Cong: "Amen."] Just tell the Lord, "Lord, I make the choice right now; I make the trade; I make Thee my choice; it is gone, and I have something better."... Where in the world is the opportunity for any of us to get discouraged over our sins?
"'Now some of the brethren here have done that very thing. They came here free; but the Spirit of God brought up something they never saw before. The Spirit of God went deeper than it ever went before, and revealed things they never saw before; and then, instead of thanking the Lord that they had ever so much more of Him than they ever had before, they began to get discouraged. They said, 'Oh what am I going to do? My sins are so great.'...
"'If the Lord has brought up something to us that we never thought of before, that only shows that He is going down to the depth, and He will reach the bottom at last; and when He finds that last thing that is unclean or impure, that is out of harmony with His will, and brings that up, and shows that to us, and we can say, 'I would rather have the Lord than that' -- then the work is complete, and the seal of the living God can be fixed upon that character. [Cong. "Amen."]...
"'Which would you rather, have the completeness, the perfect fullness, of Jesus Christ, or have less than that, with some of your sins covered up that you never know of?... How in the world can that seal of God, which is the impress of that perfect character revealed in us, be put upon us when there are sins about us? He cannot put the seal, the impress of His perfect character, upon us until He sees it there. And so He has got to dig down to the deep places we never dreamed of, because we cannot understand our hearts.... He will cleanse the heart, and bring up the last vestige of wickedness. Let Him go on, brethren; let Him keep on His searching work....
"'If the Lord should take away our sins without our knowing it, what good would it do us? That would simply be making machines of us.... We are always intelligent instruments – not like a pick or a shovel.... We are intelligent instruments. We will be used by the Lord at our own living choice.'" Bulletin, pp. 404, 405.
Note: As you can see, the Lord gave the same message to Jones and Waggoner in 1888 that He has given to us now. Unfortunately, the leading brethren opposed them, and they became discouraged and left the church. But this time the message will go through until the end, and produce the 144,000 who will be without fault before the Lord as it is prophesied in Revelation 14.